Power Failure by Ben Bova

Author:Ben Bova
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

Dora Engels

She was actually good-looking, Jake realized. Much better looking in person than the photos on the NEA’s website. Dora Engels stood about five six, Jake judged, on the slim side, with shoulder-length chestnut-brown hair and penetrating dark brown eyes that looked like they could nail a student to his chair. Strong cheekbones and a firm chin that could be stubborn.

But she smiled graciously as she welcomed Senator Tomlinson, William Farthington, Isaiah Knowles, and Jake to the conference room next to her office. It was on the small side, windowless, paneled in light wood, with chairs along the two side walls and a table that could accommodate twelve.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she said to the senator as she shook his hand.

Turning his smile to full wattage, Tomlinson replied, “The pleasure is all mine.”

Jake had ridden to the NEA headquarters with the senator in a chauffeured black sedan. Farthington and Knowles had been waiting for them in the lobby.

“Quinton hasn’t shown up yet?” Jake had asked.

As if in answer, Jake’s smartphone had buzzed.

Harold Quinton looked annoyed, harried, in the phone’s minuscule screen. “Just touched down at Reagan,” he said. “We ran into some weather over Kansas.”

Jake got a mental picture of a tornado blowing Quinton’s plane all the way to Oz.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, yeah. But I’m going to be late for your meeting.”

“That’s all right.”

“I hate being late. Bought the fastest executive jet on the market and I’m still late.”

“I’ll make your apologies.”

And that’s what Jake did as Dora Engels gestured to the empty chairs along the conference table.

Her brows knitting ever so slightly, she asked, “Will Mr. Quinton be attending our meeting?”

“He’ll be here shortly,” Jake said as he sat down near the foot of the table. “He flew in from California, had some rough weather on the way.”

“I see,” said Engels. “Well, shall we start without him?”

“By all means,” Senator Tomlinson said. He was sitting at Engels’s right.

After introductions up and down the table, Engels said, “We’re here today to clear up this unfortunate misunderstanding that Senator Tomlinson caused recently.”

His face going serious, Tomlinson said, “I’m very sorry if my words hurt anyone’s feelings. I was trying to point out a problem that needs to be addressed.”

“STEM teaching,” said the gray-haired woman on Engels’s left. Jake noticed that all the NEA people were sitting on one side of the table, the senator, Farthington, Knowles, and Jake himself on the other.

Not good, Jake thought. Not good at all.

Four of the five NEA people were women, ranging from middle-aged to white-haired. The fifth was a lanky youngish man with a military-style buzz cut, wearing a sports jacket and a polka-dotted bow tie.

Tomlinson nodded at the woman who had spoken. “STEM subjects are important, vital to the nation’s future.”

The young man across the table said, in a twangy nasal voice, “We’re all agreed on that, but how can you expect overworked and underpaid schoolteachers to add more time, more effort in an already overcrowded school day?”

“That’s what we’re here to ascertain,” said Farthington.

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